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In this chapter, Rafaele Ariano examines Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2014) as a hybrid of the art film and the romantic comedy. Ariano conceptualizes the “art romantic comedy” as a sub-genre that targets audiences that would typically reject the romantic comedy based upon conventions of taste and cultural hierarchy. The chapter places Gondry in a cohort of contemporary auteurs, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Sofia Coppola and Alexander Payne, whose romantic comedies are characterized by qualities drawn from art and indie cinema. These characteristics include the expressive use of film style and implementation of metafictional devices, complex “sensitive” protagonists, and endings that are ambiguous and thus only partially “happy.” Ariano applies this genre framework to an analysis of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but also places the film within wider trends in the genre of romantic comedy.

This chapter shows how Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind establishes structure and projects a sense of musicality. Its story’s lacunae emerge through a bewildering number of flashbacks as well as process-oriented and mood-based events, all which make a space for the soundtrack. Alongside these lacunae are carefully refined structures. At least 30 visual motifs—like the skeleton posada figures, lamps, and hair dye—crisscross the film, playing a variety of roles. These motifs and the lattices that hold them are structured to connect with the soundtrack in an intimate fashion. The film’s soundtrack contains much music, but even when music is absent, the dialogue and environmental sounds are designed to work musically. A latticework of sound-image relations create new kinds of characterization, affect, and story.

This chapter analyses Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Be Kind Rewind (2008). In the former, Joel has his memory of his ex-lover Clementine erased before deciding to try to reverse the process by hiding her in memories where she does not belong. In the latter, two bumbling video-store clerks in Passaic, New Jersey produce “sweded” versions of popular films after the VHS tapes of these films are accidentally erased. When the clerks are forced to stop their productions due to copyright infringement, they decide instead to enlist the whole town in the making of a film about the legendary jazz musician Fats Waller (1904–43), who in the film is erroneously believed to have been from Passaic, when in reality Waller was born in New York City. Author Yu-Yun Hsieh compares the exploration of personal memory in Eternal Sunshine with the production of collective memory in Be Kind, noting that in both cases “fictional” or “inauthentic” memories are created to preserve a relationship, whether between Joel and Clementine in the former or between the inhabitants of Passaic in the latter. In both films, memories are open to revision but preserve an essence of truth.

This chapter discusses how the time distortion applied in Michel Gondry’s film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has changed the traditional filmic romantic union. Traditional filmic romantic unions aim to overcome the antagonism between romantic couples. The usual “overcoming” of antagonism in traditional filmic romantic unions is used to create hope that the nature of the society is working to fix what is wrong; for instance in this film, to bring the couple together again. However, Eternal Sunshine fully accepts the use of antagonism. The film projects a relationship that commences from hopelessness in order to shatter the spectators’ expectancy of usual happy endings.

In this chapter Sheheryah B. Sheikh examines the narrative organization of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2014)’s love story through the lenses of apocalyptic literary theory and eschatology. Drawing from the writing of Frank Kermode, the chapter argues that the film’s primary narrative problem, the disappearance of Clementine from Joel’s memories, constitutes an eschatological occurrence on a personal scale. However, the film is “apocalyptic” in another sense: while Joel is trying to prevent this cataclysmic event, he revisits his memories and uncovers greater meaning in them, simultaneously revealing these details to the audience, and thus the film “lifts veils from” Joel’s memories, which is the etymological meaning of the apocalypse. Sheikh argues that, through the film, Gondry advocates strongly for the need to revisit and re-assess memory, rather than rejecting memories, even if they are painful.

Sian Mitchell’s chapter traces the legacy of Frenchpoetic realist director Jean Vigo (1905–34) in Gondry’s work. Drawing on the surrealist theories of André Breton, this chapter argues that early surrealism has influenced not only Gondry’s visual style, but also his thematic interests. This chapter notes how Gondry aesthetically explores the surrealist concept of l’amour fou (mad love), which appears in the way he depicts the intimate relationships of his protagonists as transforming the ontological and temporal qualities of their environments. This chapter examines Gondry’s films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Mood Indigo for traces of this influence and draws connections to Vigo’s iconic L’Atalante (1934), positioning these works in the lineage of cinematic depictions of mad love. This chapter argues that in both Gondry’s and Vigo’s films, l’amour fou is embodied through a love that also challenges normative conceptions of space and time.

This chapter presents an interview with Charlie Kaufman, whose scripts include Being John Malkovich (1999) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). His directorial debut Synecdoche, New York (2008) is described as a work of rare ambition and scope. The film grapples with themes of failure, disappointment, and ennui. The cast is also one of the best in recent American cinema, which include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis, and Dianne Wiest. The interview covered topics such as how Kaufman found the transition from writing to directing; whether he intended that Synecdoche be viewed numerous times; the comic element in Synecdoche; his reputation for writing strong female characters; and his working relationship with veteran cinematographer Frederick Elmes.

This chapter presents an interview with filmmaker Michel Gondry. His films include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), a second collaboration with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. The film echoed Gondry's work in other media with its arresting mix of state-of-the-art visual effects and more DIY aesthetic. He also wrote and directed The Science of Sleep (2006). The interview covered topics such as how making a film based on his own screenplay affected Gondry's creativity; how much The Science of Sleep was drawn from instances in his own life; the role played by Gael Garcia Bernal in the film; and whether Gondry delves into his own unconscious a great deal for his work.